← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · edward gibbon
Thread ID: 3894 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2002-12-07
2002-12-07 18:05 | User Profile
From the Japan Times, unofficial organ of the Japanese Foreign Ministry and occasionally the Finance Ministry> ** [url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20021208a1.htm]http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...b20021208a1.htm[/url] **
The below article> Japan to monitor U.S. dollar policy [SIZE=3]Tokyo wants new White House team to follow its weak yen philosophy**[/SIZE]
Government officials said late Friday they are closely watching how the United States proceeds with its strong dollar policy after the recent shakeup of the White House economic team. Reiterating their beliefs that a weak yen is desirable for Japan at this time, officials from the Finance Ministry and elsewhere said they will keep a close eye on who will succeed U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey.
[color=red]Japan hopes someone from the financial sector who is seriously committed to pursuing the strong dollar policy will be appointed, one senior official said. [/color] ÃÂ "The financial sector is the most competitive industry in the U.S.," the official said. "The sector benefits the most from the strong dollar policy."
O'Neill, who tendered his resignation Friday along with Lindsey at the urging of President George W. Bush, has maintained the strong dollar policy. The previous administration, of President Bill Clinton, also faithfully pursued a strong dollar. ÃÂ [color=red]But unlike Clinton's team, which included Robert Rubin and many other members from the financial sector, O'Neill has been widely perceived as actually preferring a weaker dollar to increase the competitiveness of U.S. products. He hails from the manufacturing industry. [/color] O'Neill left his job as chairman of Alcoa Inc., the world's biggest aluminum maker, to take the Treasury post in January 2001. ÃÂ O'Neill and Lindsey are the first top economic aides to be ousted from the Bush administration. The Japan Times: Dec. 8, 2002**
The favoring of the financial side rather than the manufacturing side of the economy started under Greenspan and has continued mightily to the ruination of this country. GE's Jack Welch and other greedy CEO's invested overseas, most generally in China, and have starved this country. We may get from China a payback that may make Pearl Harbor look like a border skirmish. We are our own worst enemies, and it starts at the top.
2002-12-07 18:34 | User Profile
Another Great Reason O'Neil was Fired
[url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/jan-june02/oneill_2-6.html]http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house...oneill_2-6.html[/url]
** [SIZE=3]Argentina's economic problems[/SIZE]
JIM LEHRER: What's the latest from your perspective on what is going on in Argentina? Are they pulling out of it? How do you read that situation?
PAUL O'NEILL: They are working hard on it. I talked to the finance minister again last night in Argentina. We're in close touch with them. You know we care a lot about what is go on there. We hate seeing the social unrest. And we put them in touch with what we think are the world's leading experts on the subject that they are struggling with. We're doing everything that we know how to do to help them create a sustainable economic system.
JIM LEHRER: Except pushing to get them IMF help, the United States is not backing that, right?
PAUL O'NEILL: Well, you know in order to have sustainability, there are a number of things that have to be done. They have to deal with their - what has been a fixed currency situation - you know, there's no place in the world that has been able to maintain a fixed currency. They are dealing with that. ***They have got a very unusual relationship between the provinces and their federal government -- the equivalent of our states and our federal government. They have a system where the provinces can create obligations for the national government whether the national government wants them to or not. It's not a sustainable political system. And so they have got to deal with that issue. ***
JIM LEHRER: But that's been your position from the beginning, has it not?
PAUL O'NEILL: Right.
JIM LEHRER: That they have to fix it; the United States can't help them?
PAUL O'NEILL: Well, you know at the end of day sovereign governments are responsible to their people. I think it's fair for us to have ideas and knowledge about what is a sustainable political system. It's not up to us to impose it on them. It's up to them to create it themselves, and then we can help them with money.
JIM LEHRER: You said something at this economic forum in New York. "We have spent trillions of dollars in overseas aid but we have precious little to show for it." Is this the kind of thing you're talking about?
PAUL O'NEILL: What I'm talking about in that quote is having worked around the world for the last 40 years and having demonstrated in 36 different countries around the world that it's possible to take and work with human beings in every kind of country and help them become highly productive, high earning people; that it's a tragedy that there is still billions of people who live on a dollar a day or two dollars a day. And that's what my comment means.
I believe the world can do better. *** I think it's the obligation of people who would call themselves leaders to make it better by creating sustainable social systems that so every human being has the possibility of realizing their God-given potential. And, I think every one of those people out there that doesn't realize that, and there have been billions of them in the last 40 years -- if it doesn't weigh on your heart, then you're not a leader.* **
JIM LEHRER: Mr. Secretary, thank you very much.
PAUL O'NEILL: My pleasure. **
Does anybody remember O'Neil's remark that the money lent to Argentina would end up in Swiss bank accounts within a week? The financier club has been maintained.
2002-12-07 19:44 | User Profile
Originally posted by edward gibbon@Dec 7 2002, 12:05 GE's Jack Welch and other greedy CEO's invested overseas, most generally in China, and have starved this country.
Edward:
Who is starving? I'd like to know. When Newsweek runs a front-cover story on how fat Americans have gotten (since 1990, mostly) - how do you argue that this country is starved?
now, if you mean 'starved' in the financial or job sense, I can see that but not very much. Unemployment is 6% and people act like the end of the world is upon us. Yes, the financiers win, but they've always won - since the beginning of time.
-Jay
2002-12-08 18:19 | User Profile
(jay Posted on Dec 7 2002, 20:44 )
Who is starving? I'd like to know.
Unemployment is much closer to 10% than 6%. The inflation rate is much higher than the official figures. You have never suffered adversity in your young life. In a few years when the Chinese squeeze this country with their resources and productive capacity, I suspect that you will be unaffected for the great part. The overvalued dollar has long destroyed much of American industry, and we have make few things to pay for our imports. Increasingly we are taking on the characteristics of a third world country.
Everything cannot be reduced to dollars. You should read some Adam Smith. He was nowhere near the fool that libertarians would have you believe.
2002-12-09 15:47 | User Profile
**Unemployment is much closer to 10% than 6%. The inflation rate is much higher than the official figures. **
Let's say it is. That means 90% are employed. During the Great Depression, it was 25% unemployment. We have a ways to go to get to that level.
** You have never suffered adversity in your young life. **
I will grant you that. You are correct. But have you? I'm talking true adversity. Great Depression adversity, potato-famine, genocide, a war? No, you haven't, and neither have 99.9% of living Americans.
In a few years when the Chinese squeeze this country with their resources and productive capacity, I suspect that you will be unaffected for the great part
True. But weren't the experts saying the same thing about Japan in 1990? THey tanked. Remember, if manufacturing was all that mattered, Mexico/India/China wouldn't be such sh*t-holes. YOu need creativity & ingenuity.
-J
2002-12-09 16:38 | User Profile
(jay Posted on Dec 9 2002, 16:47 )
You wrote:> **QUOTE You have never suffered adversity in your young life.
I will grant you that. You are correct. But have you? I'm talking true adversity. Great Depression adversity, potato-famine, genocide, a war? No, you haven't, and neither have 99.9% of living Americans.**
I did go to war. I suspect that 95% of Americans escaped the travails you mention, but that does not mean we are immune to history. We should learn from others. The myths we believe about ourselves are destructive and lead us to inflate our importance. On your school breaks you should put your business books aside for a while and read some history. You will benefit greatly. Once again I suggest Adam Smith.
You further wrote:> **QUOTE In a few years when the Chinese squeeze this country with their resources and productive capacity, I suspect that you will be unaffected for the great part
True. But weren't the experts saying the same thing about Japan in 1990? THey tanked. Remember, if manufacturing was all that mattered, Mexico/India/China wouldn't be such sht-holes. YOu need creativity & ingenuity.*
Manufacturing is not all that matters, but American industry and business did not get solid footing until we established high tariffs. Even then the working-man was brutalized and deprived. Civilized society depends on much more than business and economics. Perhaps as you age you will realize this. The Chinese have never accepted American primacy even when they were prostrate. They will have little sympathy for us.
2002-12-09 16:48 | User Profile
I did go to war.
Then you have my utmost respect. You are in that 5% of people that can speak of adversity then. I'm the first in my lineage (4 generations) that didn't have to, so I don't know the sacrifice.
On your school breaks you should put your business books aside for a while and read some history. ÃÂ You will benefit greatly. ÃÂ Once again I suggest Adam Smith.
I do own a copy of "The Wealth of Nations" - I have only read excerpts. I do want to read it all. Unfortunately, I have to learn the "hard skills" to get a job. It's a tough market right now so I'll need some luck, too.
The unemployment rate for college educated people in the USA is 2.9%. I realize not everyone has a college degree but for those that do, I want them to think about what their ancestors went thru. That's all I was saying.
-J